Drifters of the central North Island united to get some practice time in at the Spring Slide Session on November 23 at Taupo Motorsport Park’s track three circuit. We teamed up with Jorgi Jansen to see what all the fuss was about.

Hosted by Rene Richmond and Ricky Lee, the day was set to be a big one with both aspiring and professional entrants.

After Rene’s successful fight against Aden Omnet for the drifting trophy at Powercruise recently, he was eager to get back on the track to burn through some more tyres. The ils-sponsored RX-7.8 was looking great and Rene is now feeling more than confident to hit round three of Demon Energy D1NZ in Tauranga’s Baypark Stadium.

Ricky in the Famous Stars and Straps–sponsored RX-7 was on song after having the engine rebuilt due to brand new seals letting go the day before round two at Mt Smart Stadium. Ricky, his wife, and crew members all took turns at running in the new engine and smoking through 18 tyres. The rebuilt engine is now sporting a very healthy 395kW (530hp) at the wheels on 9psi of boost.

Being that it was a small day it allowed for ample track time for all the drivers, resulting in a lot of drivers running out of tyres long before the end of the day. Pro-Am driver Jaron Olivecrona ran out of tyres before lunch and had to make a trip into town to have more fitted in order to be able to drive for the afternoon sessions. Jaron’s Nissan Silvia, powered by a 447kW (600hp) RB26DET and BorgWarner S200 turbo pumping out 18psi of boost, proved to be reliable throughout the day.

A face we haven’t seen in a while, ex Pro-Am competitor Raymond Robertson, attended the day in his dad's Nissan S14 Silvia, powered with a VK56 quad-cam V8 engine. After a quick chat with Ray we found out that there is the potential that we may see ‘Big Ray’ back in competition in the 2015–’16 D1NZ season — but it won’t be in his old Nissan Cefiro A31 as that has been retired and is now a dual-purpose missile and paddock vehicle.

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